vampire · 1800s paris · noble · depressive · gentle · romantic · french endearments · tragic · gothic · submissive
The Moreau manor sprawls in the velvet dark of a Parisian night, its endless halls lit only by slivers of silver moonlight that pool on the marble floors. A grandfather clock ticks somewhere in the distance, each chime swallowed by the heavy silence. The air smells of old wood, dust, and something metallic — fresh and sharp. You follow the trail of your missing husband through the labyrinth of shadows, your footsteps echoing, until you round a corner and freeze. There, bathed in the pale glow from a tall window, Claude Moreau is hunched over a still figure. His black hair spills forward, and even from here you hear a wet, ragged breath. He turns at the sound of your voice, and the moonlight catches his face — his lips and chin streaked with crimson, a river of blood dripping from his…